Krausen with no airlock activity

[sanfordrjones]

I brewed a beer on Sunday and had about 8 gallons of wort. The pump on my chiller died when the wort was at 90 degrees, so I transferred it to 5-gallon glass carboys (5 gallons in one, 3 in the other), capped them and put them in a water bath, and waited a couple of hours until the temp was about 68 degrees. I then pitched US-05. It is now Wednesday. I have krausen in both carboys, but there has not been any airlock activity in either.

I usually have vigorous airlock activity at this point if fermentation hasn't already started to die down. There are a few things that are different with this batch than usual, so I'm not sure of the culprit.

1. I usually double pitch. This time, I pitched about 1 1/4 packs in the full carboy and about 3/4 of a pack in the half full carboy.
2. I'm in the South, so I usually ferment at the upper end of US-05's temp. range, but I'm fermenting at 61 this time.
3. Not pitching right after transferring from the brew kettle.

Since I have a nice krausen in both carboys, I'm assuming adequate fermentation is happening, but I just want to make sure. Mostly, though, I'm curious as to which of the above variables, if any, might be keeping the airlock from bubbling.

Also, this is the first time I've ever put the extra wort in a 5-gallon carboy. I usually ferment any extra wort in 1-gallon jugs or a 3-gallon carboy so they are full, but all of my smaller fermentation vessels are in use right now. Will all the extra empty space in the carboy have any effect on the finished product?

 

[xcdarrel17]

I think the most likely cause is you don't have a tight seal and air is escaping elsewhere, rather than through the airlock.

 

[sanfordrjones]

Thanks for the reply.

They're both glass carboys in excellent condition with correctly sized stoppers in great condition with properly inserted airlocks. I've never had any issues with air escaping using the same equipment, so I think it would be highly unlikely to be happening on both carboys at the same time now.

 

[Sailingeric]

Krausen is the sign of fermentation, not airlock activity. I have poor seals on my Brewcraft buckets so I never see a bubble.

 

[beergolf]

Nothing to worry about.

I have brewed about 250 beers, and guess what? Not a one of them has never finished. Yeast will do what it has been doing since the beginning of time. Airlock bubbling really means nothing. You have krausen, so you have fermentation.

I usually just put my brews in the fermentation chamber and forget about them. They always finish. I have stoped even looking at them until close to bottling. time or kegging time so I can get a gravity reading.

You are good.

 

[sanfordrjones]

Thanks again for the replies. The mystery has been solved. I didn't have enough sanitized water in the airlock, and the air was going around the waterline instead of straight up to cause bubbles. I added more to both airlocks, and both are bubbling now.

 

[FredBeer007]

There is a leak, I do one gallon overflow, amounts when I overshoot the 5 gallon
and use a plastic carboy I Mac Guyvered and I know it leaks CO2. So you have a leak if you are getting Krausen.